The more time I spend teaching four mallet marimba material, the more I realize that there is a massive gap in contemporary marimba repertoire aimed at beginner players. There are plenty of beginner pieces, but far fewer pieces are written to help players who have just learned to hold four mallets transition from technique exercises to actual music. Far too often, I see beginner students become too ambitious in their repertoire choices when they first start out. This often leads to the student becoming understandably frustrated and more likely to give up. I wrote “First Steps” to guide students across the bridge from technical exercises to level-appropriate repertoire. The pieces in this collection are presented in increasing difficulty so that younger players won’t try to run before they can crawl. All movements are engaging for both performers and audiences, and make perfect choices for solo festivals: either as stand-alone pieces or mixed and matched as a suite. I have introduced each piece with both program and performance notes, which provides the performer with insight into programmatic concepts and details on the technical aspects of each piece. I sincerely hope that you will enjoy learning and performing each of the pieces in this collection. – Robert Clayson
